NEW DELHI, November 17: A draft Action Taken Report (ATR) on Jain Commission findings is now awaiting Cabinet approval, Home Ministry sources said today. The Cabinet is expected to discuss the ATR at its meeting tomorrow.

Even at this stage, the draft prepared by the Home Ministry needs some inputs from several Ministries and Departments. But officials said this is not likely to delay the tabling of the Commission's report, along with the ATR, as soon as the winter session of Parliament gets going.

The session opens on Wednesday, but following Parliamentary custom, both Houses are likely to adjourn for the day as a mark of respect for members who have recently died.

Officials indicated that the ATR is unlikely to be a bulky, comprehensive document. But in it the Government expected to reiterate its commitment to bring to book those involved in the larger conspiracy around the Rajiv assassination, which the Jain Commission had been asked to unravel.

The Commission has only dealt with the sequence of events leading to the assassination in its 17-volume report. The ATR is expected to promise more specific action the Govt planned to take once the Commission submitted its final report. The assurance may be backed with the promise of setting up a committee of officials from the agencies concerned to follow up Jain panel findings, sources said. The ATR is also likely to assure that the Government will go as far as possible in providing the Commission with `sensitive' documents it needed. Officials confirm that the Ministry had received some of the `evidence' it had sought from the Commission to substantiate the findings in the interim report. Depositions made by witnesses are termed `evidence' under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, the Home Ministry has clarified. Gupta's remarks last week that the Commission had not submitted the evidence to back its findings had triggered speculation that the Govt was inclined to delay in tabling the interim report.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.